International Projects

UNODC: Treatnet Capacity Building

(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

In December 2005, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
launched the "International Network of Drug Dependence Treatment
and Rehabilitation Resource Centres," a global initiative to address
the growing demand for accessible and quality drug treatment and rehabilitation
services.

Participants from 20 treatment centres from around the world met from
Dec. 5 to 9, 2005, in Vienna, Austria, where they embarked on the
process of building the Network and its capabilities.
UCLA ISAP has been chosen as the lead centre for the treatment capacity building
arm of this UNODC effort, with Richard A. Rawson (ISAP Associate Director) and
Walter Ling (ISAP Director) leading the effort to create and deliver a training
package.

This United Nations project addresses the disparate technical
capacity of many regions of the world to provide diversified and effective
drug treatment and rehabilitation services, including support for
HIV/AIDS prevention and care. ISAP
is coordinating the effort to deliver a multivolume training package to the Network.
The ultimate goal is to increase the capacity of the treatment centres to deliver
a variety of treatment and rehabilitation interventions in all represented regions
over the next two years.

The Network of Resource Centres, under ISAP’s coordination,
has assessed the training/capacity-building needs of all the regions represented
by Network members through needs assessment surveys and the international
exchange of staff from many of the Network Resource Centres.

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

Colombia

Egypt

Germany

India

Indonesia

Iran

Kazakhstan

Kenya

Mexico

Nigeria

Russia

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States

ISAP has used the knowledge gained from
these needs assessments to develop a series of capacity building training
volumes. Through these assessments, the Network has identified initial
priority areas to include in the volumes: substance abuse assessment,
psychosocial interventions, and pharmacotherapies. Each training volume
consists of individual modules that focus on — for example — a
different substance, treatment method, or aspect of treatment (e.g.,
detoxification, assessment, treatment planning, substitution therapy).
These volumes are designed to train service providers in a “Training
of Trainers” method.
The first people trained will subsequently train a second generation
of service providers in their own region.

The training volumes were presented at an international
Network-wide meeting in September 2006 in Cairo, Egypt. After this
launch of the training package, ISAP, with the assistance of substance
abuse experts from many institutions, will use the volumes to train
Network member trainers in an intensive training to take place at sites
in Los Angeles, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Starting in 2007, these Network-trained trainers will, in turn, disseminate
their new skills and knowledge to all types of substance abuse service
providers (nurses, doctors, counselors, social workers), who will then
use the capacity building training volumes to build substance abuse
treatment capacity within their regions.

Some 200 million people — or 5% of the world's population
aged 15 to 64 — use illicit drugs, according to UNODC's
2005 World Drug Report (www.unodc.org). Opiates
remain the most serious problem drug worldwide in terms of the
impact of drugs on health, followed by amphetamine-type stimulants
and cocaine, as measured by demand for treatment services.